I had heard of these nascent recordings before... it was said by some that the master tapes had burned in a fire, by others that all of those recordings ended up being on the released album, and still by others that the only existing copy of that material was on an acetate owned by David Bowie, and that he was known to tout it as his most prized possession.

The way I had remembered the story is that Bowie got a promo copy of "Velvet Underground & Nico" from his then manager, Ken Pitt. But I just looked up "The Pitt Report" and, indeed, on Nov. 10, 1966, in Warhol's Factory, Pitt received "an acetate advance copy" of the forthcoming album while in the presence of Warhol and Reed.

sir, i managed to score a rip of this vinyl in my travels and would be happy to toss it your way, if you want to hear it at the very least! it has that beautiful warm crackle to it...pm me for more, anyone who wants it.

otherwise, good lord...this would go into a safe if i ever got my hands on it properly.